LAS VEGAS--Avatar producer Jon Landau was on hand yesterday at Panasonic's CES press conference to extoll the virtues of Panasonic's plasma monitors (which the filmmakers used for on-set playback during the film's production) and to discuss the future of 3D. PM caught up with him for a brief chat about life since the release of Avatar.

Now that Avatar has grossed over $1 billion globally since its December 18 release, it is easy to forget the mixed pre-release buzz that included doubts about whether the public would embrace a movie some described as "Dances with Smurfs," or a "Ferngully ripoff." "We had to tell the studio to relax," Landau said. "What matters in the end is the movie, and we knew that the movie works." Landau said that when he and director James Cameron decided to showcase Avatar at the BNAT film festival run by film-geek god Harry Knowles (of Ain't It Cool News), the studio advised against it: "They didn't want us to go. They said, 'those are the people who say all the mean things about you.' We said, none of that matters."

Asked if anything about the subsequent reception of the film has surprised the filmmakers, Landau said, "No surprises, really, but a sense of vindication. It's proof of what we've been saying all along--that this movie would play to a lot of audiences, women as well as men."

Like other Hollywood bigwigs at CES (Dreamworks chief Jeffrey Katzenberg made an appearance at Samsung's event to announce the 3D Blu-ray release of Monsters vs. Aliens), Landau is bullish on the future of 3D--and not just for big screens or mega-blockbusters. "It's for big movies, it's for little movies," he said. "In the future, people will expect all of their content to be 3D."

Landau seems to be enjoying a bit of a reprieve after the multi-year slog to help the notoriously hard-charging Cameron bring Avatar to the screen. His post-press conference plans in Las Vegas included going out to dinner with his wife. After all, he said, "I haven't seen her in four years."Â